Primærmeny

Kategori: reise

Good morning everyone <3 Day two of this California/Berkeley trip has just started, and so far I'm very happy 🙂

Yesterday I "finished" the first part of the uranium analysis (which is to find the nuclear level density of uranium-234) - that I wrote about in my last blog post - and started the second part of the analysis (which is to find the gamma ray strength function of uranium-234). The picture above show the very first result of my gamma ray strength data (the squares - both black and white) plotted together with different data from the big nuclear data bases. When I wrote "plot" and this appeared I actually screamed with excitement and joy, and hugged Cecilie, who was sitting next to me and helping me, because it looks soooo pretty - even before I've started to "tweak" my data to fit with the ones from the data bases (the ones on the right side of the plot - the little triangles).

The goal of this trip is btw to put these two properties of the nucleus (the nuclear level denisty and the gamma ray strength function) into simulations of different reactors (that uses thorium based fuel) and see if they affect the results of the simulations - when we compare to standard simulations where we don't do anything about these nuclear properties 🙂 *excited*

----------------------------------------------

Below are a couple of pictures from yesterday and today. The first one, of Anders, is probably more like what you would imagine when I say "pure joy"...;) He has just rented a nice car and is on his way to Palo Alto as we speak - he is also excited. (Actually kind of wish i could go with him, but I'm on my way to the lab now, with Cecilie - and that will of course also be fun...but in a quite different way 😛 )

beautiful morning at Berkeley campus

cutest squirrel at Berkeley campus

Cecilie and Darren discussion something important (I'm guessing 😉 ) at Jupiter, where we had dinner yesterday - and the day before, when we'd just arrived

Packing - check (but in a hurry, so not really sure if I'm bringing everything I want to...)

Passport - check

ESTA - check

Print of tickets (yes, I'm old school) - check

Print of hotel booking conformation (still old school) - check

Wearing comfortable clothes - check

I think we're ready for Berkeley/San Francisco, and a week of PhD life on the other side of the Atlantic, now <3

Below is what I did yesterday, as part of my preparation for this trip - on the first picture, the dotted line is not in agreement with the black squares, but on the second picture, it's like a perfect fit 😀 This means that the first part of my uranium analysis is coming to an end (if you ever can say that anything in science is "coming to an end" - I guess you actually really can't...:P), and I'm really excited about this trip!

As you know, I came back home from my very sweet colleague Lucia’s wedding in Toledo, Spain, on Saturday.

Toledo is a town about one hour from Madrid (where Lucia is from), and according to my friend Google.com it is "one of the Spanish cities with the greatest wealth of monuments. Known as the 'city of three cultures', because Christians, Arabs and Jews lived together there for centuries, behind its walls Toledo preserves an artistic and cultural legacy in the form of churches, palaces, fortresses, mosques and synagogues. This great diversity of artistic styles makes the old quarter of the city a real open-air museum, which has led to it being declared a World Heritage Site."

Unfortunately I didn’t experience anything of Toledo this time, I just watched it at a distance 😛 But I know, after what Lucia has told me, and after driving through it on our way back to Madrid on Saturday, that this is a place I have to come back to. Maybe like September, or something? We’ll see what the Man has to say (cause next time I’m not going on my own, like I ”had to” this time, since he’s in Asia – yes, I still miss him 🙂 ).

Anyway; I loved every single part of those 24 hours I spent in the Hotel Cigarrel El Bosque, where I stayed, and the party was! From sitting outside my room at my balcony, in the shadow, looking at the old town of Toledo, drinking ice cold water and writing, to sneaking out to the pool with Cecilie at 2 AM, and sitting there with our tired feet in the water and discussing nuclear physics <3

As I’ve promised; here are some pictures from Lucia and David’s wedding in Toledo – including my choice of outfit, of course 😀

- my room had a view towards the old town of Toledo -

--------------------------------------------

I couldn't decide whether to wear my red/pink roses dress, or an apricot thing, but when it turned out that my underwear showed through the apricot dress, the decision was quite easy 😉

- someone sent a bottle of sparkling wine to the room, and I have no idea who did it -

-----------------------------------------------

Today I'm back at the office again, writing. It's pretty quiet here at Blindern now - not sure if I prefer it like this, or with a lot of other people...

I really hate being away from my blog for as much as I've been have lately :/ The thing is that sometimes plans change, and time for stuff like blogging goes towards zero - which has been the case the last weeks (especially the last 10 days or so).

Last week, for example, we spent two days at Brønnøya, with Charlotte, Anders (Charlotte's husband, not my boyfriend), and their daughter Kristiane. That may seem like an odd choice when I'm "complaining" about there being so much stuff to do (with Berkeley coming up in August), but those 48 relaxing hours were more or less my entire summer vacation with both Alexandra and Anders (my boyfriend, not Charlotte's husband 😉 ) so when Charlottes asked if we wanted to go, it really was an easy choice after all <3

Then there's been two non-planned days at home with Alexandra (which I of course love, but then there is less time for working, and then no time for blogging), and yesterday she went off to her father for summer vacation the next 2.5 weeks... Yesterday was also the day when Anders went to Asia for the next month - I should be honest and say that I did shed some tears.

-----------------------------------------------------

Now I'm off for something that is planned: my fantastic colleague Lucia's wedding in Spain <3

Right now I'm waiting to board my flight for Frankfurt, and then I'm going from there to Madrid. I'll spend the night at an airport hotel in Madrid, and then, tomorrow I'll go from Madrid to Toledo, where we'll celebrate Lucia and David.

I'll keep you posted with wedding outfit and other stuff (at least I'll try my best 😛 ), but now I have to run to get me an extra dose of cosmic radiation *yeay*.

As (some of) you know, I'm going to Berkeley in August. One exciting week to work on my next paper, and to do some simulations of some reactors. To do this I have to fill in forms - and I HATE forms 😛 (But love Berkeley <3)

I tried to do it yesterday, but did of course not have everything I needed to complete it.

The problem was my passport, which wasn't located at the same place I was... I was at my office at the University, and my passport was at home. So why didn't I just do it when I got home then? Well, I got home just after 11 PM, from dinner with the Ludvigsen committee and the minister of education, and at this time my mother was trying to sleep (she was there because of Alexandra <3), and I didn't want to wake her/keep her awake, and besides I was exhausted and didn't even remember that I was supposed to complete my form with the passport information. Luckily I remembered to bring my passport this morning, and now it's finally done.

I'm here for the weekend with Anders - just him, me, some quantum physics mandatory assignments (Anders is teaching) and my Big Bang manuscripts. Mostly play, but there'll always be some work too - that's just how we like it 🙂

Barcelona is warm and and beautiful; there is wine, tapas, and basically everything you (or at least we) could wish for...except the solar eclipse. We "should have" gone to Svalbard and Longyearbyen this weekend, of course. Except I would have frozen to death. So even though it would have been great to see the solar eclipse, I´m actually choosing warm weather, palms, no snow, Cava (bubbles bubbles bubbles <3), and Spanish cheese over freezing cold, snow, and solar eclipse any day 😉

guess it was "wrong" to eat and drink at an italian bar last night - but it was the first place we saw that was open (we were out too early for dinner, really) and looked nice, and Anders wanted pizza, so we went for it...we DON´T REGRET it, and will most likely go back again before we leave Barcelona on Sunday!

Last week (weekend included) was quite exhausting, with five different talks, one trip to Bergen, one trip to Ålesund, Lise´s thesis defence and so on… I had to do something i really HATE – I had to cancel a meeting I was supposed to go to on Friday, but I just really needed to spend my time on preparing for my talk Friday afternoon (at Ekerberg, with a beautiful view of beautiful Oslo, bathed in sunlight).

There was no real weekend this weekend (work work work, talk talk talk), and on Friday my neck and upper back stiffened (not the worst I´ve experienced, but still quite painful) - BUT...to the title of this blogpost:

Yes, periods like this is exhausting. But it is also extremely exciting! I was sitting at a café in Ålesund after I had finished my talk for NITO on Saturday (which seemed to have gone really well – they seemed happy and excited J ), preparing for the Ludvigsen committee meeting today and tomorrow, and I was drinking a glas of wine (since it, after all, was Saturday) – that´s when I realised I had been up since 4:20 AM, and also that I was actually working, but I was really happy, I was doing my job, sitting at a café in beautiful Ålesund, drinking wine! I´m so grateful to be in a position where I can call days and periods like these for my job! (I´ve worked for it, so I must admit that I think I´ve earned it, but I´m still grateful).

Guessing a lot of you are still asleep...;) I´m not, though - I´ve been at Gardermoen airport for about 45 minutes already. Going to Ålesund to talk about physics and science and stuff for NITO, and then back again to night. I´ll be landing at 9:25 to night; so it´s really close to the epic date and time march 14, 2015 - 9:26:53 (3.141592653)... Yes, happy Pi Day to all!

------------------------------------------

Found this video thing of Alexandra and cousin Andrea playing and dancing just before christmas - aren´t they adorable? At least to me they are <3

Hi everyone! I´m at the airport right now - on my way to Paris (not really - I´m on my way to Orsay, which is outside of Paris :P) and the fission experiment. Excited, and will tell you more about it when I get there, and know more about it myself.

This morning started at NRK, where I tested outfits for Big Bang... We start on Monday (O. M. G.), and I must admit; the next days will be very hectic. It helps to be "stuck" at a lab, though - I will hopefully (very likely) have some time when I´m not baby sitting the experiment or working on the "bridge" chapter, to prepare for Monday.

See you later! I have a confession (hint: I´m embarrassed), and I will tell you about it tonight...

-----------------------------------

snaps from yesterday - getting ready for my lecture about SoMe at HiOA

Just LOVE the scarf - that I got as a gift from Sunniva (supervisor) after I finished my Master´s degree. Real, Russian, wool scarf <3

The doctors and the lawyers are (at least in popular culture) successful, nice, good looking people who help others and make good money...but who´s the scientist?

Today I´ve been in Hamar (at Hamar Katedralskole) talking about "my story", and physics and science and scientists and why it´s important and a profession I love <3 Can´t complain about the view from the train either 😉